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Monday, February 17, 2014

Pork Spare Ribs in the Oven Kampot Pepper Honey Mesquite

Oven Baked Spare Ribs?

I'm all snowed in. I'm sure you know we've gotten a lot of snow. So much so I should have spent winter in Maine. Trying to un-bury the barbecue pits has been chaos. My wife decided she would oven bake some pork spare ribs.

Being a Pitmaster, I thought this at first to be a cardinal sin and I wondered just how she would get that melt in your mouth smokey taste. You can't argue with an Italian woman cooped up in the house for a week, so I let her go and do her thing. I figured she's be pouring Liquid Smoke on them, but not so. Much to my surprise, they turned out pretty darn good. I'm still somewhat in shock. So here's some pictures and a recipe.

Cook Time:
Now, this was a thick slab and everything I read said a huge slab will take about four and a half to give hours on 275 to 325 degrees if you do them low and slow depending on the thickness of the pork spare ribs. Baby backs take much less time.

Her Cook Time: 4.75 hours (WHAT!)

For whatever reason my wife cranked them on 350 degrees for two hours, and burnt up the sides. She then glazed them with her mix of Kampot Pepper, Honey and Dry Mustard.After that she cooked them another hour on 350. This is where I was having a cow. I thought for sure they'd burn to a crisp but I didn't say a word.

Once they obtained a good bark, she glazed them a second and last time with the same glaze mix covered them in foil and rode them on 265 degrees for another hour and forty five minutes. So she basically cooked them in total 4.75 hours. When they came out, I was in shock. I let them rest but they were so delicious I didn't even trim them. I cut them and left them long, here's what we had: Yum Yum Oven Baked Ribs.

The mesquite spice made them smokey, the honey mustard Kampot pepper glaze gave them a distinctive taste, yet the honey cooled the heat of the horsey powder.

I have to say they were pretty good. I really think the Kampot Pepper if replaced with regular black pepper wouldn't have cut it. Kampot Pepper in red has strong flavors and the black has a floral note to it that can't be replaced. I can't wait to try using these in my rubs.